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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22975789">Splash of Red</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/donutsweeper/pseuds/donutsweeper'>donutsweeper</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Flash Fic, Murder, Protective Bucky Barnes, Protectiveness</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 15:40:09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>632</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22975789</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/donutsweeper/pseuds/donutsweeper</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Bucky had been killing people to keep Steve safe for a long time.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Writing Rainbow Red</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Splash of Red</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/seinmit/gifts">seinmit</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>James Buchanan Barnes has been killing people to keep Steve safe for a long time, longer than anyone, even Steve himself, could ever have guessed. Anyone who'd ever picked up a history book or read a comic knew about his deadly accuracy with a sniper rifle and how proficient he'd been in using those skills to protect Captain America and the rest of the Commandos against Hydra during the war. It would make sense, when considering that little factoid, to believe that somewhere in the European theater there had been a situation when Bucky had no other choice but to use lethal force to save Steve's life for the first time. It was definitely a logical assumption to reach, but it was wrong.</p><p>There was a report, redacted to hell and back by the Strategic Scientific Reserve once they found out about it, about a 1937 brawl that resulted in thirty-seven arrests, including that of one James Barnes and one Steven Rogers. The details were scant since it was just one of many such incidents that year and the police didn't care about <i>those </i>kinds of establishments or the people who frequented them, but they did note one man died of wounds sustained during the fighting. There had never been an official inquiry so Steve never had to lie about what had happened. He would have though, he didn't want Bucky just to be sent down for looking out for him. Besides, it was like Bucky said; the guy brought a knife to a bar fight, he deserved whatever happened to him as result. He swore to himself that he'd be more careful from then on though and had hoped it'd be the first, and last, time Bucky ever wound up with blood on his hands because of him.</p><p>Bucky never told him that not only wasn't it the first time, it wasn't even the second. Obviously Steve was well aware of that incident back in '32 when Mister "if I don't stop those bullies, who will" stood up to the three assholes who'd been harassing Old Man Matthews, the half-blind fruit peddler who worked their street, but he didn't realize that after he'd been knocked unconscious one of the thugs had grabbed a brick and had been about to split Steve's head open when Bucky pushed him into the busy street. While Bucky hadn't planned on him being run over as a result, he hadn't been too bothered by it either. Steve was safe, that was what mattered and if Steve mistakenly assumed the thug's death had been a terrible accident, well, Bucky was never bothered to correct him on the matter.</p><p>The first time Bucky had killed to protect Steve… well, that one had been an accident. Or unplanned and unexpected anyway. Bucky had gone looking for Steve and found him in the lot behind his tenement, curled in a ball, getting the shit kicked out of him. At all of eight years of age Bucky wasn't that big yet, but he was scrappy and sneaky so he grabbed a wash basket someone'd left next to the line and walloped the guy with it, knocking him off Steve and into the wall next to the privy. He hadn't really meant to hurt the guy, he'd just wanted to stop him from hurting Steve, but a few hours later—after helping Steve home and getting fussed over by Mrs. Rogers—he noticed the guy still lying there, half sitting/half lying where he'd landed, a splash of red on the brickwork behind his head. As he walked off he had the brief thought that he should be upset by what'd happened and what he'd done, but he wasn't. The guy'd hurt Steve, no one should just walk away after doing that.</p>
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